Balance Of The Planet

[SarahHX]

What could happen if we would take all the rocks of the world, and put them on one side of the planet?

[jim360]

A lot of money would be wasted, but other than that, little would change -- there may be a lot of rocks, but there are likely to be far too few to make a significant difference to anything really. At any rate, the rest of the Earth is too massive to notice in a major way. Probably you would have local changes in the gravitational field, but they would be minor.

[heathfield]

If you moved the rocks, what would you replace them with? It wouldn't be water, 'cos there isn't enough. Though the oceans may seem large, the total volume of water on Earth is very small compared to the total volume of rocks. See the image here...

http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthhowmuch.html

[jno]

presumably the centre of the earth would move a bit

[douglas9401]

Tesco would build a massive Dobbies Garden Centre nearby selling little but alpines.

[gness]

Best answer to Douglas, surely?

[stewey]

In a similar vein, I would like to know how much deeper the oceans would be if they took out all the sponges.

[Dodger666]

If you're around in 650 Million years you will find out.

http://boingboing.net/2009/07/16/time-lapse-sim-of-ea.html

[Old_Geezer]

The world would lose balance and plunge into the depths of the universe moving faster and faster until it hit the bottom.